Chapter Seventy-two
City of Dusk; Midtown
Fluttershy
“Wait.” Rainbow Dash said as Gilda began to turn away. She did. “You said you’re here for artifact recovery? Look, this place is still crawling with those beasts, most likely. We’d be better off if we stuck together, don’t you think?”
Gilda raised an eyebrow at him, clearly suspicious. Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably, worried about what was happening. Right from the beginning, when she first saw the black cloak on this girl, she had been afraid. She still remembered every second when she was being attacked by that monster Lucius seven years ago, and did not trust Gilda any further than she did him. She tugged once at Dash’s sleeve, and in a whisper, she spoke up: “Um... Are you sure about this, Dash...?”
He cast a curious look at her. In an undertone, he asked: “You don’t trust her?” After a moment’s uncomfortable hesitation, she shook her head. He nodded solemnly. “Me neither. That’s exactly why I’m suggesting this, so I can keep an eye on her. Don’t want her screwing up our mission or anything.” Fluttershy nodded in sudden understanding, but a long moment passed before Rainbow Dash broke eye contact with her. When he turned back to face the Order member, Fluttershy’s eyes fell to the ground. What was that...? It’s like he was trying to make me feel safer without saying anything... Her mind was a bit preoccupied with everything going on in the ruined city to ponder this, but something was definitely off about it.
Gilda unfolded her arms, and walked back over to the group. “Travel together for a bit, you mean? Search all over for everything and cover each other’s butts from these creatures of darkness?... You know, I can see your point there. There’s strength in numbers. Fine, I’ll stick with you for now, but only as long as we’re going in the same direction. If I need to take off, don’t try and stop me.”
She moved over to the edge of the plaza clearing, then pointed to a road leading deeper into the city. The strangely shaped pinwheel towers loomed overhead like skeletal trees. “I know what I want is that-a-way, and your ancestor’s thing for you is probably there too. This city is basically radial, and the most important buildings and stuff is at the dead center. So that’s where we go.”
She set off without another word, and with a look back and a nod to Fluttershy and Angel, Rainbow Dash followed. Fluttershy took Angel’s hand and followed suit. Ahead of her, she could hear Dash and Gilda talking idly as they walked: “So, Gilda, what do you know about this place? What are those weird looking towers everywhere, and these creatures running around?”
“I’ve been here a few times, yeah.” She answered. “See, the people of Dusk were very industrious, and were founded by the Children of Air. As such, they didn’t have a load of magic to power their stuff like Eclipse did, so they turned to raw technology instead. Those towers? They are windmills- ancient machines that harvested turbine energy from the very wind itself that powered this city. Unfortunately, most of them are rusted over from lack of maintenance now, and haven’t been gathering any power for years. And the creatures... I duuno, really. They’ve been here, as far as I can tell, as long as the city’s been abandoned by humanity.”
“It’s just...” Dash started. “Back when we met Lucius, he summoned things just like these. I wondered if there was a connection.”
“Oh, you guys were the ones who killed him? Hah, don’t worry, don’t worry, it’s cool. He was too careless, clearly. Order’s better off without him. But yeah, I think he was calling them from this place when he summoned them, which is why there was never a shortage.”
She’s able to wave away the death of one of her partners that easily?! Fluttershy thought, alarmed. That’s crazy! I really don’t feel good about this... We shouldn’t be trusting this girl...
“Anyway...” Gilda continued, “I’m not sure what they’re doing here in the first place. It’d be nice to figure it out, maybe get find a way to get rid of them someday. This place was supposed to be really nice back when people lived in it.” The party continued through the streets for another few blocks, each moment growing more tense with anticipation of an attack from the terrible creatures of darkness, and soon passed through another plaza on their way. Gilda seemed not to find anything of interest in the plaza, and was already walking through to the street on the other side, but something on the far right edge had caught Fluttershy’s eye.
It was a building made in a completely different style than the uniform grey of the other buildings, with extremely weathered and splintered wood making up the majority of the walls. The roof sat a bit lower than the rest of the plaza as well, but it was wide enough to take up the whole of the edge by itself. Shattered windows that seemed to have once been stained glass ringed the empty spaces in the walls, and a sign that probably advertised the place lay discarded on the ground, none of the paint remaining to give a message any longer. Judging by the general shape and appearance of the building, Fluttershy guessed it was likely a tavern or restaurant.
While this didn’t strike her as terribly unusual, or even interesting, something did make her pause and stare at the building. She couldn’t quite place it, but something definitely seemed off. Maybe it was how out-of-place the woodwork was among all the stone, or perhaps it was something more... Perhaps this was where she was meant to be. Angel was the first to notice her pause, since he was right next to her, followed only a moment later by Rainbow Dash. He tapped Gilda on the shoulder to alert her to the situation as well, and she turned around impatiently.
“What’s the holdup? You see some creatures in there?” She stalked back over and peered in for herself, readying her battle claws, but Fluttershy shook her head quickly.
“No...” Fluttershy muttered, taking a cautionary step forward. “Not them. But... I feel something strange about it... I think we should take a quick look inside, just to be sure.”
Dash nodded, but kept his sword at the ready. “I think gut instinct is a good thing to trust at times like these. But mine is telling me that we shouldn’t let our guard down even for a second in this place. We’ll move in, but stay close and careful.” He crept forward with blade held out before him, eyes meticulously scanning every opening in the building. Fluttershy watched motionlessly for a moment, struck by his steadfast determination to keep her and Angel safe, and felt a slight blush. She shook her head clear a moment later, putting her mind back to work with the situation at hand, and she moved forward behind him.
When they breached the door and crept inside the building, she noticed that it was not in much better shape than the exterior. All the tables had long since fallen to the ground, their legs rotted out from under them, but she could tell where they once had been. A bar ran along the length of the far wall, confirming that the building was once a tavern. Evidence of parlor games were scattered about: the remains of a billiards table along with two or three balls in the corner, a few dice laying around here and there, and an open chess case with most of the pieces still remaining.
Fluttershy looked around the room for a long minute, unsure of what she was supposed to be seeing, but she couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. She was about to turn around and apologize for wasting time with the tavern, when she caught sight of something- someone- standing at the far end of the bar and jumped nearly a foot into the air. Her racing heart was able to slow down marginally when she realized it was not a living person, but a statue that had gone unnoticed in the rubble of the building. She took a moment to calm herself, her nerves shot from the terrifying nature of the city, then examined the statue more closely.
The figure depicted looked like he would have belonged in this tavern were he alive though. His clothes consisted of a loose vest over a basic shirt, nondescript pants, and an alarmingly fashionable fedora atop his head. His hair fell past his shoulders messily, and even as a simple statue his stubble was apparent. At his belt hung some sort of short, rodlike weapon.
“Who’s this guy?” Gilda asked, a hint of curiosity creeping through her wall of boredom.
“It seems really out of place in this building...” Dash commented. “Could... Could this be what we’re looking for? Is this guy one of our ancestors? But if that’s the case, how does this statue help us at all?”
Fluttershy took another cautious step towards it, her mind racing. This man could well be her ancestor, and the gift he had left her could be just a few more feet away. Her heart was going a mile a minute already, and when she stepped forward, Dash called out in warning: “Fluttershy, wait! There’s something wrong with it!”
She looked back at him, then back to the statue, confused. Her eyes widened when she realized what he meant; the whole grey figure was beginning to glow with a dull red light. Fluttershy took a cautious step back, then froze up when the light reached its peak and sputtered out. A long painful moment passed in which nothing happened, then the eyes of the statue flew open, glowing red, and it began to walk towards her with stiff, jerky movements.
Fluttershy stumbled backward in fear from the moving statue, her hands shaking too much to draw her weapon. The statue reached to his belt and retrieved his odd-looking weapon, and spun it around in his palm once. It snapped up suddenly, extending to two feet in length, and an oddly shaped spearhead flipped forth from somewhere within the weapon as well. It almost looked like a spade suite that would be found on a playing card.
Dash and Angel finally got their wits about them and leapt forward, cutting off the path of the possessed effigy with weapons raised. Gilda appeared to still be by the door, eyes locked on the statue but not leaping into the fray. The statue stopped as the two stood in his path, then shook his head and attempted to wave them aside. With that, Fluttershy knew without a doubt it was her he wanted, and that he was most likely the image of her ancestor, not Dash’s.
She locked eyes with it, hoping against hope to be able to reason with the thing, and shook her head vehemently. “Please, fighting isn’t the answer!” She pleaded. “I know it’s me you want, but fighting me won’t do anything either! I can’t fight you!”
Dash started, looking back at her out of the corner of his eye. “Fluttershy, what are you doing?! This thing can’t understand you! Let us take care of it!” Despite Rainbow Dash’s words, the statue had actually stopped, and seemed to be trying to register what had been said. A brief hope filled Fluttershy’s heart, as it appeared there was some measure of intelligence within the effigy. It reached forward with both arms and shoved both boys aside powerfully, sending them stumbling to the debris-covered ground, but then it sheathed its weapon in a clear declaration of ceasefire.
Fluttershy watched with a mix of fear, confusion and curiosity as the statue folded his arms, looking for all intents like he was mulling over the situation and trying to find another solution. Dash and Angel both scrambled to their feet and Fluttershy’s side, but all of a sudden she didn’t feel the need for them to stand between her and her ancestor. At last, the statue unfolded his arms and raised them dramatically as though lifting something from the ground, and the ground underneath the rubble, between the two began to shift. Sections rose in squares, all at different heights, forming two odd formations at either side of the space between Fluttershy and her ancestor’s effigy.
She lowered her eyebrows at the formations, trying to figure out what their purpose was, until the statue cast his arm over it with a flourish. On his side, several glowing red shapes leapt into being, standing upon the square tiles, and on her side, identical blue ones formed. The statue finished by reaching to the ground, picking something up and tossing them to her; three normal playing dice.
Her eyes widened, everything seeming perfectly clear. “The game!” She stated excitedly. “The one we played when we were little, Dash? The one I still play with Angel? This is just a huge version of that! Wait... That game was passed down through the family, Creiddylad told me. Could it... My ancestor probably was the first one to play! But that means I’ll be playing against the creator of the game itself...”
“Is this seriously happening?” Gilda asked in annoyed disbelief. “Are we really staking our whole mission and the fate of the country on some children’s game? Ugh, I thought that only happened in books...”
“I dunno, I think I see what her ancestor means by this.” Dash stated, standing up straighter and dusting himself off. “This is war, but battle isn’t all about fighting. If Fluttershy can conduct these troops against him, then she’ll have proven herself capable in a whole different way. Tactics is a big part of battle too.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Gilda complained. “Just seems kind of time consuming on her part. We’re going to have to hold down the fort here until the game wraps up, with those creatures running around this city just waiting to pounce on us. I hate staying in one place for too long in something else’s hunting grounds.”
Dash shrugged and moved over to the door, standing guard alongside Gilda, and Fluttershy set to work scanning the miniature stone battlefield constructed for the tiny soldiers. It didn’t look like it was anything fancy, just several layers of ground connected in various places by stairs, with all the soldiers placed up highest on the back rows. It all looked very haphazard, but she could see potential sniper spots for archers and mages on both formations. The space between the two was flatland, but a grid of light showed where the tiles were.
The statue motioned courteously for her to take the first move, and she nodded. The forms of the soldiers had completely solidified into colored figurines, no longer glowing with the magical energy that had created them, so she was able to touch them and move them all by hand. She started by moving all the heavier-hitting units- armored knights, axe men and spearmen- to the lower levels, with the swordsmen and flyers just above them, ready to dive in and hit weaker points in the enemy’s formation. Mages, archers and the single healer all waited behind the front line, ready to assist from afar.
The statue nodded thoughtfully, then sent his troops forward as a whole and off of the formation. Curiously, he kept the heavier units to the side, with the faster and softer-hitting spear and sword users in front. The mages, archers and healer were still kept in the center of the approaching mass of soldiers, but Fluttershy found his approach to be a bit backwards and confusing. He invented the game, though. He knows what he’s doing, now if only I knew too... Why put the weaker soldiers up front?
Fluttershy used her next turn to finish organizing her own troops, placing each soldier at the perfect position to strike where she thought her ancestor would move his troops. His next turn brought him directly before her makeshift fort, and his myrmidons and soldiers collided with her wall of heavy fighters. The dice flew, and she was surprised to see herself taking more damage than he was. By focusing on one heavy soldier with more than one light troop, he was able to outmaneuver them and their slow speeds to rip them apart. One was destroyed on the spot, with another severely damaged.
Fluttershy’s next turn rolled around, and she first had her healer bring the heavy knight back to full health. Next, she used her magicians and archers to bombarde the light fighters of her enemy, successfully destroying two of them. Her own swordsmen and lancers rushed out from behind the line and cut down a third and wounded a fourth, then braced themselves for impact from the impending enemy. The heavy soldiers were just out of her own reach, and she did not want to move her human wall for fear of exposing the weaker long-rangers.
Her ancestor’s troops blasted forward, his mages and archers a flurry of projectiles that cut down three of her four light fighters. His heavy fighters marched forward in wake of the storm, crashing into her wall and downing the two knights and leaving her with only one axe user and a swordsman, plus her two archers, two mages, two flyers and healer. His forces still consisted of a lancer, plus all four of his heavy fighters, two flyers, healer and long-range specialists.
Fluttershy frowned with concentration, trying to find a way to pull the match around. Her ancestor had gotten very lucky so far, but it would take an awful amount of luck for her to push things back into her favor. She started by collapsing her line and moving back a full step, just far enough away that his troops could not reach hers in his next turn, and placed her magic users and flyers directly behind the line. She had a last-ditch plan to try, and hoped that he wouldn’t see it before it was too late.
Her heart flared when he took his next turn and marched right up the slope, right into her trap, only making one attack with an archer and hurting her swordsman. Her healer patched the wound up a moment later when her turn came, and she sprung her trap. The mages let loose upon his defenseless heavy troops, wounding them, and her flyers swooped down to finish both of them. Her archers then focused their fire on his lancer, destroying it as well.
Three kills in one turn! I might just stand a chance after all! She kept focused on the game, cringing when the remaining two heavy soldiers crashed into her line once again, killing the swordsman and nearly bringing the axe user with him. His archer’s and mages launched projectiles over her line and finished off one of her flyers and hurting an archer. Her retaliatory attack shot both of his flyers clean out of the air with her archer’s advantages over them, but her line was too weakened to continue to hold that position. Her troops moved back another notch, backing up into the very edge of the battlefield.
Her ancestor’s troops kept up the barrage, the two heavy soldiers managing to barrel through and cause some more damage before collapsing. Now it was only her axe user and flyer, both mages and archers and healer against his archers, mages and healer. It looked like she held the upper hand and would pull through, until her ancestor’s archers and mages let loose another volley, striking down both her axe user and healer.
Frowning again, she directed her remaining troops to take out his healer, and managed to wound one of his archers in the process. Now it was four on four, an even match, and neither could repair the damages they sustained. A true pretend fight to the death. The dice continued to roll, soldiers falling one by one on both sides, the numbers dropping to three a side, then two, finally ending in a one-on-one showdown between her archer, and his mage. Her palms sweating with anticipation, she cast her dice to the center of the battlefield, her ancestor’s falling a moment later. They both bounced around for a moment, then fell in almost slow motion to their final reading.
A six for Fluttershy, and only a one for him! The perfect roll. His mage was removed from the field, leaving her archer the last man standing. She had won. But... What did that even mean? She looked up to the stone effigy of her ancestor, still gazing with his pupil-less red eyes upon the miniature battlefield, then nodded in satisfaction. He stepped back, the figurines and game area disappearing and returning the floor of the decrepit tavern to normal. Fluttershy’s eyes widened in fear when the statue drew his weapon again, but instead of moving towards her, he took a step backward... and drove the weapon into his own heart.
Or, where the heart would have been. As it was only a statue, there was no visible damage to speak of, but it paused and began to fall back as though it had actually been stabbed. As it collapsed, a bolt of magical energy, the same filling the effigy’s eyes, began to leap across its surface, hit its forehead, then jolted away from the statue entirely, arcing through the air... towards Fluttershy. She didn’t have time to dodge away before the bolt raced up to meet her, striking her directly between the eyes, completely scrambling her vision and making her extremely light headed.
Strangely, she didn’t feel pain or wounded from it, only very sleepy. As though through a filter in the background of the tavern, she head Angel and Rainbow Dash shout her name, and was vaguely aware of being caught in her fall to the ground, and then everything went white.